Anti-social behaviour prevention ‘clearly not working’ as almost half of Rotherham residents think it is a ‘big issue’

A report to the council’s overview and scrutiny committee said that 49 per cent of Rotherham thought anti-social behaviour is a ‘big problem’ in their area, and 56 per cent felt safe in their area after dark.

Last year, 1,504 community protection notices were handed out for issues such as anti-social behaviour, waste and noise across Rotherham.

RMBC said it is ‘committed to improving community safety and is taking robust enforcement action across enforcement and regulatory functions’.

But during yesterday’s committee meeting, Conservative councillor Joshua Bacon said that the council’s schemes to reduce the number of incidents are ‘clearly not working’.

He told the meeting: “There’s a rise in people feeling that anti-social behaviour is on the rise, and I would go further than that, it’s probably not a feeling, they know so.

“There are easy wins that are being lost, that the council can hold itself to account on. There’s repeated lawlessness on the A57, for example, with delinquents racing up and down it.

“The council has a big, big job to play in bringing down anti-social behaviour and it’s failing on that.”

However, council leader coun Chris Read said that the council had done all that it can to provide resources in the face of challenges.

Coun Read said: “I don’t accept some of that, frankly, there are a range of challenges for services right across the borough. They have been made worse by 13 years of reduced levels of staffing and budget – across both the council and our police colleagues.

“We continue to do all that we can to resource services. Some of those things are far beyond our control, and it would be naive to suggest there is a magic wand that I could wave here to fix anti-social behaviour.

“We’ve had more than a decade where South Yorkshire Police and the council were short-staffed, where councillors in this chamber repeatedly voted against resourcing the police appropriately.

“This administration has put additional money into CCTV, additional money into community protection, even at a time when our resources have been reduced.”

Paul Woodcock, strategic director of regeneration and environment added that the data doesn’t show that anti-social behaviour is increasing.